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After Narrowly Averting A Shutdown, Congress Prepares For Fall Furor

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

There's a new fall drama starting to play out. Who'll be in? Who'll be out? Forget prime-time TV or the baseball playoffs. Things are getting interesting in Congress. In the next 10 weeks, House Republicans have to elect a new speaker, a leadership team and prove that they can govern. NPR's Susan Davis reports on the coming drama, Congress style.

SUSAN DAVIS, BYLINE: The only thing Republicans in Congress can agree on lately is they don't agree on much. Many lawmakers want to move quickly and quietly through the legislative to-do list to keep the party focused on what Republicans like Senator Cory Gardner say should matter the most - winning the White House.

CORY GARDNER: Focus on winning in 2016. That's what we have to do. A lot of these so-called fissures and fractions go away when we have the White House.

DAVIS: Members of the most conservative factions, like Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, just don't see it that way. This fall's legislative battles are a test of their conservative principles, and leaders like John Boehner, they say, have been too willing to walk away from the battle.

TIM HUELSKAMP: We've been teetering from crisis to crisis in Washington for the last five years because of, I think, a lack of leadership in the House and Senate and Presidency, and this December's going to probably be the worst ever.

DAVIS: Here's what Congress has to do by December. They need to reach a long-term spending deal to keep the government funded. They need to raise the debt ceiling so the country doesn't default on its debts, and they have to pass a highway bill to pay for the nation's roads. For conservatives like Huelskamp, this is where they will stand their ground.

The current Republican leaders like Boehner are already in talks with the White House on a two-year budget deal that would ease tough spending Republicans put in place four years ago. This is exactly the kind of Washington deal making that angers conservatives like Arizona Republican Matt Salmon.

MATT SALMON: If we blow those budget caps and we go back into the kind of deficit spending that occurred before 2012, that is an untenable position for people like me.

DAVIS: Those spending cuts are one of the few things conservatives are proud of.

SALMON: We've had a lot of losses along the way on policy matters. That's the one area where we actually accomplished something.

DAVIS: Any deal that lets Washington spend more money under any circumstances will get an automatic no vote from him. But more moderate Republicans say that kind of all-or-nothing thinking has crippled the party's ability to move meaningful legislation. Here's New York's Peter King.

PETER KING: These guys have set impossible standards. Basically, they want Obamacare repealed. It can't be done so long as President Obama's the president.

DAVIS: Before December comes around, conservatives who are hungry for a veto showdown over the president's health care law will try again. While Congress has voted dozens of times to end Obamacare, Senate Democrats have always blocked it from reaching President Obama's desk. Now Republicans plan to use a budget procedure that Democrats can't block with a filibuster to gut the health care law. John Fleming of Louisiana says conservatives have been waiting for this moment for years.

JOHN FLEMING: We want to put on the president's desk and actually see him veto our efforts to fix the problem.

DAVIS: Even legislation most members of Congress support will be hard to pass by December. Take the six-year highway bill. It's usually one of the most popular bipartisan pieces of legislation. The lawmakers disagree over how to pay for it, and so Congress might end up funding road projects for only three of the six years. This is the kind of infighting that has frustrated Republicans like Steve Womack of Arkansas who'd like to see a more productive Republican Congress.

STEVE WOMACK: Let's not let the perfect get in the way of the good. Let's do something that moves the ball in a favorable direction. And we've just not been able to do that.

DAVIS: Republican divisions might mean they need Democrats to pass their agenda this fall. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi says Democrats are ready to cut deals. Of course, that'll mean compromise to get it done.

NANCY PELOSI: It's - either be that or a calendar of chaos. Stay tuned.

DAVIS: And for some Republicans, chaos might be easier to take than compromise. Susan Davis, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Susan Davis is a congressional correspondent for NPR and a co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast. She has covered Congress, elections, and national politics since 2002 for publications including USA TODAY, The Wall Street Journal, National Journal and Roll Call. She appears regularly on television and radio outlets to discuss congressional and national politics, and she is a contributor on PBS's Washington Week with Robert Costa. She is a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., and a Philadelphia native.
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